Credit Karma Money review: Receive paychecks early and enter to win cash rewards

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Overall bank rating

Pros and cons

Checking

Credit Karma Money Spend Account is a good free checking account, with no monthly or overdraft fees. You could also receive paychecks and other direct deposits up to two days early.

Savings

Credit Karma Money Save Account has no minimum opening deposit or monthly fees. It pays a higher interest rate than many brick-and-mortar banks, but you can earn a higher interest rate with other online savings accounts.

How Credit Karma Money works

Credit Karma is a finance company primarily known for showing you credit scores and reports for free. Credit Karma Money Spend Account is the company's banking platform, and it has a checking and savings account.

With Credit Karma, you have free access to 55,000 ATMs around the US in the Allpoint network.

The Credit Karma mobile app has 4.8 out of 5 stars in the Apple store, and 4.7 out of 5 stars in the Google Play store. You can link your Credit Karma Spend Account to your TransUnion credit report. Then you can see your credit score, upcoming bills, payment due dates, minimum payments due, and outstanding balances in your Credit Karma app.

Credit Karma's Instant Karma feature makes it possible for you to pocket cash. The company uses an algorithm to randomly select customers' debit card purchases to reimburse. If you deposit money into your savings account, you'll enter a sweepstakes to win up to $20,000.

Your deposits are FDIC insured for up to $5 million through Credit Karma's partner banks.

Is Credit Karma Money trustworthy?

Credit Karma doesn't have any recent public controversies.

The Better Business Bureau scores companies' trustworthiness based on responses to customer complaints, honesty in advertising, and transparency about business practices. The BBB gives Credit Karma a B+ in trustworthiness, because the company hasn't responded to all of the customer complaints on the BBB websites.

BBB scores aren't always an accurate representation of how you will interact with a company, though. You may want to read online customer reviews or ask friends and family about their experiences with Credit Karma.

How Credit Karma Money compares

We've compared Credit Karma Money to two other platforms with early direct deposits: Chime and Capital One 360.

All three platforms have checking and savings accounts with no monthly fees. You'll earn a higher interest rate with Chime and Capital One 360, though.

Chime and Capital One both let you deposit cash, while Credit Karma Money does not. Chime and Capital One also do not charge foreign transaction fees, making them good options for travelers. Capital One helps you save for individual goals by creating and naming separate pots in your savings accounts, such as "Travel" or "Emergency Fund."

But you may like Credit Karma's Instant Karma feature, which randomly selects customers for cash rewards.